


Waking Up From The Dream

by Valentine20xx



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Anime)
Genre: Ash And Misty Love, Bringing Together The Continuities, Coma Theory, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-31
Updated: 2019-07-31
Packaged: 2020-07-28 01:40:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,285
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20055949
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Valentine20xx/pseuds/Valentine20xx
Summary: Several years ago, A young trainer, Ash Satoshi Ketchum, was caught up in a sudden storm during the beginning of his POKeMON Journey. While he seemed to have survived, his POKeMON, a Pikachu, was overloaded and died on the spot.In the present, he lies, in defiance of medical science, hovering between life and death, his POKeMON journey seemingly put on hold permanently...Until now...





	Waking Up From The Dream

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: POKeMON © Nintendo/Game Freak/Creatures (The POKeMON Company). Some elements are derivative of the works of Takeshi Shudo. Neither are used with permission.
> 
> Large portions of this narrative use writing conventions and terminology prevalent within the English translations of POKeMON, especially it’s animated continuity, as well as elements used within the English-speaking fandom, for ease of comprehension. Major examples include that Kanna's name is given as Lorelei Prima, and Kasumi's name is given as Misty Kasumi Waterflower, and Ash will recall things as they were in the English anime where disputes occur.
> 
> The concept of this story stems from the so-called Coma Theory, which was an unpopular, but increasingly plausible, theory from the early days of the POKeMON fandom, while the series was still written by Takeshi Shudo, the creator of Minky Momo, a series which had a lot of dream imagery. This theory states that Ash's recollections from after the fateful lightning strike are his own imagination trying to create a plausible version of his POKeMON journey, while he lies near-death in a hospital, which are why an increasing number of inaccuracies in his journey occur.  
What was not helped was things like an odd clip in an early Mewtwo Strikes Back trailer, as well as material released by Shudo himself suggesting an alternative. Either way, It became increasingly popular in the early days of the fandom to think of the series as not actually being real.
> 
> Since Takeshi Shudo was fired from POKeMON, and released a very derisive ‘personal view’ of what he wanted to show with the POKeMON series as a result, which was a heavy deconstruction of the POKeMON franchise as a whole, akin to Shudo’s own use of shock value to get back at a sponsor with Minky Momo, the theories have been considered debunked, with Shudo's novels being considered a similar act of defiance to that from the time of Momo.
> 
> However, This story pitches an interesting expansion on the Coma Theory… So, what would happen when he finally wakes up?

_League Report: Ketchum, Ash Satoshi_  
_ Leagues: Kanto_  
_ Badges: 0  
Areas Visited: 0_

_Brought into Viridian City Hospital with severe electrical burns and in a shock-induced coma caused partially by riding a metal bike in an unnaturally severe lightning storm. The source of the bike was unknown, due to the bike itself being charred beyond recognition, until Gym Leader Misty K. Waterflower identified it._

_He would have been dead if it wasn't for the fact Professor Oak, who was working with a problem at the supplier of his starter POKeMON, had been forced to give a laboratory-grade Pikachu to him instead of a 'blank slate' starter, due to effectively running out. _ _The Pikachu's natural ability to absorb electricity meant the voltage was, while not safe levels, also not lethal to Mr. Ketchum, but the Pikachu itself was declared dead, with neither Professor Oak or Delia Ketchum being willing to approve the use of a Revive._

_He was brought in by the aforementioned Misty K. Waterflower, the Gym Leader of Cerulean City Gym, who had been taking an unscheduled sabbatical from League work, ostensibly to locate new POKeMON for raising within her gym, due to the increasing size of the Water archetype in recent years, requiring extra research, especially on the prevalence of Ice type._ _Due to the incident, League regulations concerning the supply of starter-grade POKeMON has required that 150% of the required POKeMON for demand within the catchment area are supplied at least a week in advance, and any supplier unable to do so will be investigated.  
_

_Professor Oak also was willing to accept the penalties with giving Ash one of his research subjects, even with the fact that his supplier admitted supplying below the original tolerances. Study of the Pikachu showed that it had enlarged electric sacs, like a Raichu, with common Pikachu dying repeating this feat. _ _The League are looking into this new mutation, with similar mutations creating a subset of POKeMON nicknamed 'Shiny POKeMON' due to being rare prized POKeMON compared to the normal genus, since they often are far more powerful at equivalent levels..._

The doors for the hospital opened to admit a young woman dressed in a white suit with a light blue shirt, the suit lapels bearing on one side a gold trimmed dewdrop shaped badge and on the other a silver POKeBall shaped badge, the only thing in her hands being an egg incubator.

Everyone knew what it meant for someone to wear just one of those badges. The first… Cerulean City Gym Leader, The second… Elite Four Understudy. The security guard briefly looked down at her feet, where a Glaceon and a Vaporeon cavorted between her legs, for her to tap each badge in turn, and move to take a slender gun metal grey case out of her inside pocket. "Oh, sorry, I didn't notice you have authorization..." He stated, "Carry on through."

She didn't even stop at the reception desk, the woman there simply buzzing her through the door, which she approached, opened and exited through without breaking a step. The entire reception staff knew Misty Waterflower, the soon-to-be former Gym Leader of Cerulean City. In fact, several of them remembered her arriving in nothing but a casual T-shirt and shorts, the same case as she'd got out confidently with the security guard opened up and on display, dragging an apparently unconscious boy who was visibly smoking, the storm outside telling them all they needed to know.

They also knew both of the POKeMON who were her current 'walking POKeMON', a recent League trial program, one of them first seen as an Eevee egg that had been in an incubator similar to the one she was now holding, the other her personal walking POKeMON. To those who hadn't been working for the hospital for the past few years, she reminded them of the retiring Lorelei Prima, formerly of the Elite Four, who would be replacing that silver badge with a gold within the next couple of months if the rumours were true.

"Wavedancer, Frost, Behave..." Misty stated firmly, "I can't keep bending League Regulations for you… Also, Considering where we're going, I don't want you breaking anything… Well, Anything else..."

She entered the room, dominated by the bed and machinery that were just acting to confirm that he was alive, but his body's electrical field was so screwed up, he was still in a coma. The burns and other obvious injuries were long gone, and it was just one last symptom that was left. According to the doctors, it was just that his body couldn't send signals to his nervous system due to all the uncontrolled electrical activity within his body’s nervous system. The problem was that to purge the excess electricity might cause him worse injury, or even kill him.

"Similar to the man who decided to train his Pikachu by poking it's electrical sacs with a metal rod. Took several years before he woke back up as his body grounded out..." Misty dictated to herself. But Ash wasn't grounding out, the voltage not dangerous per se, in that there was no brain damage, but...

The rest of the room was a small set of shelves, on which a vase of wilted lily flowers sat, a joke on Misty's name that had gone flat by the simple fact Ash hadn't woke up to laugh with them, with, sat beside it, a fair-sized statue of an action shot of the rare Surfing Pikachu variant that had come about due to a cross-breeding accident. It had been made by Frost, with the first few attempts being blasted apart by her own POKeMON as 'target practice', since they often looked nothing like what they meant to, and the current one was constantly being fixed up when it began, inevitably melting.  
Frost was a donation from Professor Oak, one of the second tier choices he'd managed to get authorized to mitigate the increasing problem with the Pallet Town breeding school. Misty had dropped off the egg one day, coming back to find an Eevee pawing at Ash's sleeping face unhappily. She'd raised it since then as the 'sister' to her own Vaporeon, both of them laughing, in their own way, at the comment that she was the 'mother' to one of Ash's few POKeMON. She hadn't mentioned that she had not argued really about the thought of courting Ash in the hopes of more.

He didn't look bad for a coma patient, his muscles having not atrophied due to the weird electrical discharges keeping him in good shape, somehow. Admittedly, he'd not looked bad then either. Placing the egg incubator on the floor, tapping it out of the way so Ash, if he did wake up, wouldn't read the legend 'Property of M. K. Waterflower. If found, return to Cerulean City Gym, Cerulean City, Kanto' on the side, the one Frost had come in _not_ being her personal incubator. Out of it she carefully removed a Pichu egg, one of it's egg moves being guaranteed by the breeder to be Surf.

It had taken a lot of her new power within the upper echelons of the league, since Pikachu was low down on the authorized starters for Kanto, even before the incident. Nowadays, It was close to banned, with raising them requiring the area be fully grounded.

"Well, Ash, I hope you do wake up for this one… The Professor knows how much you did want to have… Well, this is better than that one, anyway..." Misty chuckled, before, looking towards her charges as she took out the egg incubator, to have it shipped back to her house, "Now, you two clean up the sculpture. I didn't spend the best part of a week hunting down a Pichu that knows Surf for the sculpture to be melting..."

She didn't like how everyone's small gifts were failing to get through to him. But she hoped that the Pichu and his Glaceon would get to join him on a POKeMON Journey soon enough. She still didn't know why they'd not yet let her replace her bike...

_Ash looked out over Johto, Tracey sketching something as Misty looked through their supplies, bemoaning the loss of Brock again. As she got up, his perception of her flickered, as she abruptly grew into her late teens, a Vaporeon appearing at her feet, before both vanished like a soap bubble. Part of Ash wanted the previous image of her to come back. That was _**not** _scrawny, and he actually found her very pretty and cute in that state._

_He then felt a tingling from a low powered Thundershock, grumbling to himself as he looked round for Pikachu, who seemed to have wandered off. However, he knew that buzzing sensation, it was how the electric mouse got his attention, so he must be somewhere, and needing him to deal with something.  
_

_"OK, OK, Pikachu… I'm..." Ash began..._

"...getting up?!" He finished, blinking as the entire scene shattered like it had never been, looking down at a Pichu, sat in the remains of it's egg, about to try again at getting his attention, as a Vaporeon was helping an unfamiliar ice-typed form of Eevee repair a sculpture of, of all things, a surfing Pikachu. A quick look round, he figured out he was in a hospital, and his hands brushed an envelope tucked into the sheets as he awkwardly tried to get up, his body full of pins and needles, the usual state it was after a accidental strike from Pikachu.

Ash looked at the envelope, which had a note lightly pinned to the front. '_Give this to her when she comes in, and say the first thing which comes into your head. - Mom_' he read off the note as he rescued the Pichu from it's egg.

"Wavedancer… Frost… I hope you've not broken the sculpture!" A familiar voice snapped, Ash looking to see the older Misty he’d seen just a few moments before almost storm in, a lot more of a welcome sight, halting as she saw he was up, looking puzzled as he handed her the envelope, sans note.  
"Umm, About the bike..." He began, as she opened the envelope, Misty facepalming as the contents were revealed…

He'd just literally handed her a bike voucher. The first thing he’d done upon waking up was, effectively, pay for the damn bike he'd fried, effectively, even if it was years late, fulfilling his promise to replace the bike. Even Ash couldn't help but see the funny side of it. Once the humour of the moment died down, he watched as she pressed some buttons on her watch.

"OK, Mister… This time though, you shouldn't use a bike in a storm like that!" Misty snapped, clearly not completely angry, before sighing and adding, "I wondered why they wouldn't let me replace it out of my Gym stipend..."

Her watch then chirped, and she withdrew an earpiece from it, before stating, in a clear even tone, "Ms. Oak, Would you believe Ash finally paid me back for the bike he ruined?"

After eyerolling, she then pressed a few more buttons, before stating, "Professor, Delia just collapsed. Oh yes, And can you both get to the hospital, Ash just woke up… OK, Can you get there after recovering from your stumble..."

"Mom sent me the voucher… I can't think how long ago. I wasn't aware they had that program..." Ash mused, before she heard him mutter, "Probably why, in my dream, I never did pay you back..."

"Of course… It's due to the fact that somewhere around the midpoint of your journey, you'll need a bike to get around, and someone jacked up the prices, Police think Team Rocket," Misty mused, "It's not something we advertise, since they're meant to be dirt cheap by that point..."

"So… Who is… Wait, Did you say Delia, as in?!" Ash began. He only knew one Delia in Pallet Town, his unmarried mother...

"Professor Oak and your mother spent a long time together discussing your situation. They got talking about other things, and well..." Misty stated, before she abruptly said, "Anyway, The Pichu is a Surfing Pichu, and the Glaceon is yours… Both imprinted on you while you were asleep. Pichu actually woke you up in fact..."

"Ah right..." Ash stated, "Umm… Frost?"

The Glaceon trotted to his side. "Were you giving this nice girl a lot of trouble while she was caring for you?" Ash asked, Frost looking petulant, "Well, the statue was nice, and gives your new… brother something to look forward to so I'll forgive you. So, is the Vaporeon your boyfriend?"

Misty blushed at how casually he thought that one of Ash’s few actual POKeMON would be dating one of hers, the Glaceon shaking her head. He then looked thoughtful, then smirked before he responded again.

"Oh, that's right, he's your brother, with me and Misty here as the parents!" Ash declared, causing Misty to blush harder as the Glaceon nodded, Ash looking thoughtful, "And I suspect that the discharge from your other brother was what woke me up from… a coma caused by Pikachu frying everything including Misty's bike?"

"The bike’s tires were popped, the frame itself was badly scorched, and even partially repaired it was unrideable… Anyway, Mr. Oak-Ketchum! Since when were you so smart?" Misty asked.

"In my dream, there was this cute girl and a wise Rock-type Gym Leader who went around with me… Taught me everything I know..." Ash offered.

"Flatterer, And I guess you mean Brock for the other one. The guy knows his stuff," Misty stated, knowing who he was likely talking about, "Anyway, While you were waiting for an electric type POKeMON with the right wavelength..."

"You were hanging round Professor Oak or Lorelei?" Ash asked, "I do know what the badge code means, Misty, I did study for a POKeMON journey, even if gym leaders rarely wear them… Lorelei is, or likely was the Water Elite Four member, and you have a Water Elite Four badge on..."

"You got me… I was hanging round Lorelei mainly, as her understudy, and are practically standing in for her some weeks. Other than that, I also delivered Frost to you as an Eevee, since Professor Oak is allowed to distribute Eevees as alternate starters.. Admittedly, the fact that he sent you out with a Pikachu that was not fully trained only lost the job of the Ranger who originally caught it..." Misty mused with a slightly crooked smile.

“So, Why do I have the Pichu, even if it was just what the doctor ordered?” Ash asked, “Let me guess… Only I would be able to get one right now?”

"The Pichu was Professor Oak's second try, after he got a special dispensation to be allowed to test if the 'Pikachu incident' was a one-off mistake," Misty stated, “I was the one who pushed for it to be from one of the limited breeding samples,”

An odd-looking egg-shaped bird flew in, Ash cracking a slight smile as she detached a message from it's foot and returned it to it's POKeBall. "Why are you grinning like that?" Misty asked, “I found the egg one day while me and Brock were helping at a dig site, since most fossils are Rock/Water… It hatched and imprinted on me before I could get it to a breeder,”

"Really weird incident in my dream, where you ended up finding a Togepi egg quite by accident, and it was at a dig site as well..." Ash offered, "It imprinted on you there as well..."

“Maybe you overheard it in your coma, and… correctly associated it with me,” Misty stated, “Better than the birthday present one of my sisters got me. That Psyduck was an IDIOT!”

Ash snickered. Clearly he’d been witness to much more than just the Togepi. And in reality, it had been a birthday prank. "Anyway, your… parents are here," Misty stated, as Professor Oak came in, looking sheepish.

"I'm sorry about that Shiny Pikachu causing you so much trouble… I was actually meant to study it for why it seemed slightly more powerful than it should have, but the local breeding school had some of it's breeding pairs turn up barren at the wrong time..." He stated with a wince, "That's part of why my first replacement attempt was an Eevee..."

"Over the... Shiny, What happened to it?" Ash asked, Professor Oak going to his wrist, and asking for them to bring the cold box from the back of his lab to the hospital. An hour later, Ash looked at the effectively cryogenically frozen corpse of his first POKeMON. Likely it had been kept as is just for this kind of moment.

"Can you get me a Revive?" Ash asked, the nurse going over as it was defrosted carefully by a Charmander that had been provided for the purpose. A few minutes later, it gave off a weak 'Pikaaa...' and he ruffled it's head fur, the Pikachu surprised at how he didn't seem quite as angry at it, having, for it, been in something similar to a coma for as long as him.

“Considering it almost killed you, Why exactly did you immediately revive it?” Professor Oak asked.

“When I started, I was about to go on a POKeMON journey with a specific unruly Pikachu,” Ash stated, pointing to the Pikachu, “In my dream, I quickly found myself joined by the Cerulean City Gym Leader, Misty, when she was going out to get some POKeMON...”

Misty nodded at the acknowledgement as well as the fact she had been doing that, also realising what he was doing. Almost the exact same criteria for the beginning of his journey.

"So, if I'm going to start it again, I might as well start at the beginning..." Ash confirmed with a crooked grin, "Who knows, Maybe me and Misty, together, can make something of this darn mouse..."

Professor Oak smiled, nodding. Ash was right. Even if he had Glaceon and Pichu _now_… When he left, all those years ago, all he had was that Pikachu, and, if he did manage to get it to League standard, well, he'd exonerate a lot of people.

A few hours later, including the cashing in of one bike voucher, Ash and Misty looked out on the road leading down Route 1, Glaceon, Vaporeon and Pichu riding in the basket of Misty's bike, an agreed way to ensure he ‘started’ with only Pikachu.

"I'll go on ahead..." Misty stated, "Meet you in Viridian City! You dare TRY to catch any Caterpie, and I’ll keep the Glaceon!"

Ash waved her off, before looking down at Pikachu. Clearly, She still loathed bug types. At least that was true.

"Well, Pikachu, We've both got a journey to begin." Ash declared, for the electric mouse to give an enthusiastic 'Pika', Ash hearing his new watch, or POKeGear as Delia called it, ringing, for him to see Gary Oak looking at him.

"Better late than never, Bro!" Gary declared, "As your step-brother, and once almost rival, I make it my mission to make your life hell…"

"I think my girlfriend will make it worse..." Ash quipped.

"Good for you and Misty, Let her know Lorelei has decided to delay her full retirement until after she's either Misty Ketchum or Misty Oak, depending on your own decision over your last name. That or you finish the league, since you'll face Misty in her first Elite Four challenge as a member," Gary stated, then the call ended.

Ash smirked, but sighed. At least replacing a bike was easy. Asking a girl to marry you… Oh boy, This was worse than his first journey...

**Author's Note:**

> I wish to point out that things like Shiny POKeMON and Abilities were likely not understood half as well as when Ash began his journey, which is why Ash's Pikachu is promoted to being a 'Shiny' Pikachu.
> 
> Also, Misty's design is based heavily on her appearance in Heart Gold/Soul Silver and beyond.


End file.
